By NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Medicaid expansion is still one of the major issues to go before the state legislature and that's one of the many differences between the two candidates for that seat. Medicaid already generally covers low-income children and pregnant women in Kansas. Medicaid expansion would be for adults 19-64.
"I've taken care of thousands of Medicaid patients, I've taken care of thousands of patients without insurance at all and I've never means tested any of them," Steffen said. "I'm intimately familiar with Medicaid as a physician, but also as a businessman, in that I run my own practice. I'm in control of my billing and so I know what a difficult entity that is to work with and try to provide care through. It's so much more burdensome from a regulation standpoint than Medicare and particularly commercial insurance. They try to keep you from taking care of patients."
For Democrat Shanna Henry, she focused on the perceived economic impact.
"In Reno County alone, another almost 1600 residents would gain health coverage," Henry said. "Two-hundred and seventy-five new jobs would be created and over $10 billion in new annual healthcare spending would create economic impact and improved health in our community. That's just Reno County. More numbers from Kingman County add to that and that is where I reside, so this is a very important issue to me."
The current holder of the seat heading into Tuesday, Republican Ed Berger, who lost to Steffen in the August primary, was a Medicaid expansion proponent.